(CNN) - Sarah Palin is blaming supporters of WikiLeaks for a cyber-attack that briefly brought down her her political action committee web site this week.

Beginning Tuesday, an anonymous network of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks launched a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against against companies and political leaders critical of the whistle-blowing website, which has released thousands of previously-classified U.S. government documents.
The loose network of so-called "hacktivists" is calling itself "Operation Payback." A Twitter handle for the group took responsibility this week for attacks against Visa and Mastercard, which recently stopped accepting payments for WikiLeaks.

Palin last week accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of having "blood on his hands" and called on the U.S. government to hunt him "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."

SarahPAC.com was listed as an Operation Payback target and was brought down multiple times Tuesday for a period totaling 25 minutes, according to web chatter captured by the online security firm Panda Labs. The site was functioning normally as of late Wednesday.

"Governor Palin spoke out about Wikileaks because it has no regard for law or human life," SarahPAC adviser Andy Davis told CNN. "Today we learned their supporters have attacked the Palin family's personal information. Wikileaks remains a threat to every freedom-loving citizen across the globe. The world should not be intimidated. Governor Palin isn't."

The Palin adviser said Sarah and Todd Palin's personal credit card information was compromised Wednesday, but there was no immediate confirmation that the credit card problem was related to the cyberattacks.

The cyber-attack was first reported by ABC News.

The website of Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, was also attacked this week, Lieberman's office confirmed to CNN.
- CNN's Dugald McConnell contributed to this report

soundoff(81 Responses)

lmb

Thank you Operation Payback!

December 8, 2010 07:12 pm at 7:12 pm |

Jacob T.

So Mama Grizzly isn't invincible after all.

December 8, 2010 07:15 pm at 7:15 pm |

smee

haha, lieberman and palin, tough to beat these two hypocritical turds. Couldn't have happened to better folks. keep it up, hacksters and hactivists! As long as they limit their victims to bums like palin and lieberman, I don't see any real problem......

December 8, 2010 07:30 pm at 7:30 pm |

T'sah from Virginia

It takes a HACK to be HACKED!!! Why is it that ONLY Palin gets hacked???? She probably brought her own website down from "blogging lies" all the time.... Burned out her INTEL (oh wait, she doesn't have INTELligence!!!

These characters need to be taken down...they are hacking and attacking sitting US senators...this is absolutely a violation of federal law and it compromises national security. I wished one of these putzes would have the guts to show up on my doorstep instead of hiding behind a keyboard. I'd show them how I deal with the safety of my family and theft of my personal affects.

do we censor the times or cnn when thay print sensative info. Do we say thay have blood on there hands. WL is not a spy ring, nor a rouge nation printing are dirty loundry to get what thay want. As an american I do not agree with SOME of what thay do. But.. WL IS NOT LEAKING THE INFO AMERCANS ARE AND OR LETTING IT HAPPEN. WL is just reporting it.

December 8, 2010 07:48 pm at 7:48 pm |

Liz

the fact anyone wasted their time on Palin so she'd have a reason to go to the media is just hilarious. Assange and his supporters especially those helping him break the law by posting classified information should be punished like anyone else for the same crime...those knocking down Palin..damn it stop giving this media hound a reason to be in the media!

December 8, 2010 07:53 pm at 7:53 pm |

Ronny

Something tells me her site will be going down again real soon.

December 8, 2010 07:56 pm at 7:56 pm |

Linh

When u wished death and destruction on someone ... Palin should be glad that only her PAC site got crashed. This woman is an idiot.

December 8, 2010 07:57 pm at 7:57 pm |

Phil

Palin is about as clueless as they come. "Hunt them down" she says. Sarah, get off my planet and take your stupid agenda and fat daughter with you. Better yet, I'd rather hear that you got mauled by a 1 ton moose.

You can support Wikileaks in many different ways without having to use PayPal, Mastercard or Visa. Just visit wikileaks.ch to find out how.

December 8, 2010 07:57 pm at 7:57 pm |

Guest

Oh for crying out loud. There goes the most super-paranoid, neurotic martyr again. She SO loves playing the victim. They used to put people like this in padded-walled rooms and straight-jackets,. And this is someone who thinks she speaks for Americans?

December 8, 2010 07:59 pm at 7:59 pm |

Charlotte

Oh, for pete's sake. It was probably junior high kids. Wikileaks, as despicable and deplorable as they are, are really only interested in going after important things, not washed up nobodies like Sarah Palin. She just wants to get in on the fuss and hullaballoo, she can't stand the fact that for a couple of days there weren't any headlines about her. Thanks so much, CNN for rectifying that terrible circumstance, we really missed her SOOOOooo much.

December 8, 2010 08:02 pm at 8:02 pm |

William

Stop calling yourself Governor. You are not a governor anymore. You do not retain the title. You are The Honorable Sarah Palin, or simply Mrs. Palin.

December 8, 2010 08:03 pm at 8:03 pm |

abc

It wouldn't be far fetched to think she fake the attack or paid for the attack just to get more attention. She is serious attention seeker, isn't she?

December 8, 2010 08:04 pm at 8:04 pm |

Sandra

Why does Sarah always think her life is a priority above every other American's? And, why do we need to hunt down someone who spoke badly about her? How is that more important than what is going on in our country?

December 8, 2010 08:04 pm at 8:04 pm |

LGNY

WIKILeaks should be very scared.... Momma Grizzly is now gunning for them! ;-)

December 8, 2010 08:04 pm at 8:04 pm |

Ms_Thang

Lets all give a gold star to the "anonymous network of hackers" for bringing down her web site...even if it was temporary. If only they could find a way to hack into her brain and put her on mute.

I tend to look at Wikileaks as a breath of fresh air, and God knows we need fresh air in government. I am sorry it is probably going to be discontinued. Now we won't know some of the truths that a few "Americans" have held out on for the rest of us.

December 8, 2010 08:13 pm at 8:13 pm |

Commandrea

What do you expect when you call for someone's head? Roses?

December 8, 2010 08:13 pm at 8:13 pm |

James

I would ask Sarah Palin to stop running for President in an effort in which she has no chance of winning. She wastes votes that could decide a clear cut mandate on the part of the U.S. citizens to elect a person who has a good chance of winning, and enforcing the mandates of the U.S. citizens and not the government.